Working in the Family Justice System The Official Handbook of the Family Justice Council

by Walsh, Elizabeth; Geddes, Gillian

• ISBN13: 9781846611124
• ISBN10: 1846611121
• Edition: 3rd
• Format: Paperback
• Copyright: 2010-03-30
• Publisher: Jordan Publishing Limited

Summary

Anyone involved in, or embarking on, a career within the family justice system knows that it is a complex alliance between several diverse professions all with different roles to play and procedures to follow. It is therefore vital that those working within family justice understand how each profession thinks and operates. This Handbook, fully updated to take account of all recent developments including the introduction of the Public Law Outline, highlights the essentials of family justice, explains what the responsibilities of the respective professionals are and how they interact. Though not a legal text book, it does however set out the important principles of law that underpin the system to provide an accessible guide to newcomers, as well as to established professionals who need information about the ways other disciplines work and are organised. CONTENTS The Family Justice Council The Professionals The Systems Principles of Law Principles of Practice Common Knowledge Bibliography Directory of useful web addresses and phone numbers an invaluable aid ... no one, no matter how able and experienced, could carry so much information in the mind From the Foreward by the Rt Hon Lord Justice Thorpe an extremely accessible, readable and informative guide to the many facets of the family justice system ... warmly recommended Practitioners Child Law Bulletin Cost? pound;30 - and worth far more than that in your time alone New Law Journal All family magistrates will find this guide provides invaluable information and is easy to access and to understand. They will gain a useful understanding of how each profession thinks and operates. I thoroughly recommend it and hope that a copy will be available in every retiring room. Margaret Wilson, Chair of the Magistrates' Association Family Proceedings Committee So long as there is a family justice system this book - manifestly the fruit of the editor's vast experience and a huge amount of skilled research - will be indispensable to everyone involved in it, whether as experienced practitioner or trainee, or even as someone considering becoming involved. Stephen Cretney Who really knows how the mediation industry holds together, how to access information about the CSA and CAMHS, the approach the police take to prosecuting domestic violence, the rules for accessing data. This is the book that you cannot cope without, the second that your case steps off the routine path of cases that you can manage, more or less with your eyes closed. James Pirrie, Resolution

Table of Contents

Introduction

Adoption

Who can adopt?

Placement orders

Special Guardianship

Who can be a Special Guardian?

The welfare test and parental consent

The importance of the birth family

Contact with the birth family

The child in care

Support post-order

Assessment of the applicants

Permanency and step parents

International adoption

Procedure

Appeals

Regulation of adoption services

Appendices: Statutory material, Rules and Regulations, brief outline of the old law on adoption, useful addresses, suggested additional reading

Table of Contents provided by Publisher. All Rights Reserved.